MHS/WES NEWSLETTER

• Thursday, November 3 ~ Picture retakes /absentee at MHS & WES
• Thursday, November 3 ~ Nature's Classroom Parent Meeting for 5th grade Parents 7:00 PM-8:00 in Cafeteria
• Boosterthon continues until Thursday November 10 which finishes off with the Fun Run
• Tuesday, November 8 ~ No School ~ Conferences
• Friday, November 11 ~ No School ~ Veteran's Day
• Wednesday, November 23 through Friday, November 25 ~ No School ~ Thanksgiving Break

NOTES TO SCHOOL: When writing a note to school please include your child's first and last name. These notes travel between the teacher and the office so this is important for recordings in our attendance program.

Attendance, Tardiness and Truancy

Attendance

Regular attendance and punctuality are essential to sequential learning and necessary for satisfactory student progress. The following absences will be excused when the student returns to school with an appropriate note signed by a parent or guardian:

1. Illness (requires doctor’s/nurse’s verification)
2. Bereavement
3. Medical, dental or legal appointments
4. Religious observances

When an absence is unavoidable, the parent/guardian should notify the school by phone prior to 8:30 am on the day of the absence. Between 3:30 pm and 7:20 am you may leave a message on our answering machine. The office phone number at W.E.S. is 874-2043 and at M.H.S. is 874-0163. Additionally, the parent can email the offices at mhsoffice@awrsd.org or wesoffice@awrsd.org .

If the school is not notified before the school day starts, an automated voice message will come from the school first and if we do not receive a response, the school nurse will attempt to contact you. This is done as a safety check to ensure each student’s well being. If no contact is made, a school resource or other police officer will be sent to the home for a well check. In cases of extended absences and/or serious medical problems, it is the policy to provide home tutoring for students who are unable to attend school because of a long-term illness. A doctor’s written request is required. Arrangements may be made through School Administration.

Tardiness

Students who are late for school (arrival after 8:30 am) must report to the school office for a tardy slip before reporting to their classroom. Tardies that arrive after 11:30 am will be considered an absence.

End of Day Procedures

We discourage early dismissals from school and urge you to schedule doctor, dentist or other appointments outside of school hours, on school holidays, or during vacation time. Extra-curricular activities should also be scheduled to allow students to complete the school day. We will send a written reminder if the number of early dismissals becomes unreasonable or excessive.

On the day of a dismissal, the parent or guardian must send a note to school stating the time of dismissal and who will pick up the student. No student will be dismissed to anyone but a parent/guardian or authorized adult, who must report to the office to meet the student.

Dismissals prior to 11:30 am will be considered an absence.

Any changes to dismissal plans must be made in writing on or before the day of dismissal. In the event of an emergency, a phone call to the school office will need to be followed up by an e-mail or fax.

MHS and WES parades were a huge success. The array of costumes and vocabulary outfits were outstanding. Thank you Mother Nature for being beautiful out!! Check out our own Rock, Paper, Scissor team, Kathi McCarthy, Kellie O'Brien and Kathy Taylor!!!

Student council members worked to put together a video to share with students in grades K-5 to help them understand the importance of Veterans Day and why there is no school on this important date. We would like to thank all of the Veterans in the community!

Fourth grade has been hard at work learning about prime and composite numbers, and reviewing multiplication and division facts. We are wrapping up Unit 1, and beginning Unit 2. Unit 2 focuses on place value, multi-digit multiplication and early division facts.

We are continuing our work in ELA, discussing what is a figurative and literal heart. For a literal heart, we are reading “A Circulatory Story” to learn about how red blood cells move through our bodies. It is perfectly aligned to our “Animal Structures” science unit!

As we finish our Animal Structures unit, students are completing a final project that demonstrates understanding of the different structures and functions of an animal’s eyes, brain, bones and muscles.

Our new Social Studies unit will focus on continents and oceans, latitude and longitude, and using a compass rose.

Socially, we continue to work with students on how to effectively communicate with one another and how to handle unexpected set-backs throughout the day. Specifically, we are practicing what it means to work with a team and be a contributing team player.

We look forward to seeing you at conferences next Tuesday, November 8.

Fifth graders took part in the Vocabulary parade and it was awesome! It was so fun to see the different representations of the word! Every word assigned to students comes from our Wit and Wisdom language arts curriculum! Students are now on the lookout for their word to come up in our lessons!

We are excited to represent the school at the Fun Run and we always look to the fifth graders for being role models during this school-wide event. Each class is working to get their class incentives as we work toward our class and school fundraising goal!

Fractions will be the focus of our next math unit. Students are learning to use the clock and money to help them understand what a fraction is and how to add and subtract them. Using REAL clocks is SO helpful during this time!

We look forward to meeting with families on November 8th at Parent-teacher conferences!

In Physical Education, we are learning Soccer which is the most popular sport in the world and is played in most countries. Soccer is a non-contact sport that teaches coordination, builds strength, flexibility and endurance, plus it is great for fitness and cardiovascular health. Soccer is a team sport that everyone can play and students will develop skills such as dribbling with their feet, running, passing, communication, and decision-making. Students will use these skills and transfer them into game play which will promote physical fitness, teamwork, and most of all fun! Students in the younger grades will work on skills such as dribbling, passing, scoring, and defending. They will play lead up games and near the end of the unit, we will get into a modified soccer game. The older grades will also practice skills, but will get more time in gameplay situations as well as a round robin tournament on the last day of the unit!

Many students have been sharing stories about the skills they learn during practices and how they play on soccer teams. I’m very excited to hear about so many students being active outside of class and enjoying it so much. Great job keeping them active!

As always, I encourage you to be active with your kids, throw a football, go apple picking, rake up a pile of leaves and jump in them!

5th Grade: Graphing and Analyzing Data

Over the past few weeks the fifth graders have been exploring how we structure survey questions to analyze data collection. Our main intake questions was to compare the genetic traits of our fellow classmates. With the results of their findings the students created data tables of our information and graphed the data into a visual forms.

Let’s say that I am very impressed with the students’ abilities during this lesson.

4th Grade: Digital Citizenship Posters

During our 4th grade digital citizenship unit the students are learning about what it is to be a good digital citizen online. Some of our topics are:

• Treat others as you would like to be treated online

• Don’t believe everything online

• Real life consequences

• Don’t take digital materials that do not belong to you

• THINK about what you post

• T is it true?

• H is it helpful?

• I is it inspiring?

• N is it necessary?

• K is it kind?

• Be careful with your personal info

• Use technology equipment carefully

• Stay in control of your actions and emotions when online

• Remember your digital footprint

After learning and discussing the students were able to design their own super citizenship poster based of the topics. Next week the students will be able to print their creations; one for home and the other to be displayed on the bulletin board.

3rd Grade: Google Accounts

We are now full swing into our Google workspace unit. Over the pass few weeks we will exploring the different aspects of their Google suites, which includes digital responsibility, internet safety, Slides, Docs, etc.

Remember that the students can log into their accounts at home to create and practice anything they learned at school.

2nd: Digital Story Creation & Sequencing

In second grade, we have been learning how to use Wixie by incorporating digital story telling. Our main focus of this lesson is to recreate a story using different multi-medias to produce an effective written publication. By the end of the lesson the students will know how to create a drawing, insert pictures, text, and follow all rules based on the ELA guidelines.

K & 1st:

Both Kindergarten and 1st are learning how to log onto the Chromebooks. During this time, they are also have discovering how to navigate the different apps on Classlink. Soon we will be accessing Seesaw lessons and activities, typing, and even some coding.